Political Quotes

“I wonder, because a lot of this debate has been so focused on the people of Puerto Rico, whom I fully want to support, and I wish this body would engage in a full, robust debate, with amendments and a markup. But, there are costs to the U.S. taxpayers. Mr. President, I want to know if my colleague understands that U.S. taxpayers basically can be on the hook for as much as $24 billion over the next 10 years? The United States is already contributing as much as $6.6 billion for their budget as it relates to the Medicaid costs. And if, again, you don't have a functioning economy, if you have even more people in poverty because now you have said you are going to put the brunt of the $72 billion on the backs of the Puerto Rican government and infrastructure, then you are driving more people into poverty. Our costs are going to be real. This is about getting it right with legal certainty so we can move forward because this issue is not going away. They are not all of a sudden going to become healthy when this bill passes. My sense is that what has been passed by the House leads will lead to much legal uncertainty and lawsuits are going to ensue. All my colleagues know that when people disagree, the next thing they do is go to court. What we would rather have is legal certainty so that we can get a resolution of this through the regular bankruptcy process. If we don't do this right, there are billions of dollars that the U.S.…”